The Starbucks logo seen at a Houston store on September 25, 2025.
Ronaldo Shemit | AFP | Getty Images
starbucks announced Thursday that it will close about 1% of its cafes in North America as part of its restructuring.
Under CEO Brian Nicol, Starbucks has been revamping its U.S. operations with a focus on improving the customer experience, including face-to-face interactions at its cafes. The announcement marks the second closure in North America during Nikkor’s two-year tenure.
Starbucks expects to close about 250 underperforming cafes out of its more than 18,000 stores in North America. It was not immediately clear where the closure was.
“We have carefully considered our portfolio of coffeehouses in North America and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently provide the experience we desire for our customers and partners, or where we do not see a path to acceptable financial performance,” Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said in a letter to employees.
Starbucks currently forecasts net new cafe openings of 440 stores in fiscal 2026, a downward revision from its previous forecast of 600 to 650 stores. Those new cafes will come from international markets.
“We continue to see significant long-term growth opportunities in North America and are actively developing a strong pipeline of new coffeehouses,” Starbucks said in a regulatory filing.
Most of the closures are expected to occur by the end of fiscal year 2026, according to the filing. Starbucks’ fiscal year ends at the end of this month.
The company expects to incur approximately $300 million in restructuring costs related to the closure. Approximately $200 million of this charge is related to the cost of early lease termination and employee severance payments. The remaining $100 million will be non-cash charges related to the disposal and impairment of restaurant assets owned by the company.
